That's unfortunately the point. Standing in the middle gets no one. Needs to just be more decisive in defense.
He's clearly above most on the league in most areas for a winger but that miss will cost him when England are looking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Battye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Battye

Standing on his wing the centre has a walk in, stand in the centre the wing has a walk in, stand where he did he has an opportunity to at least get to the attacking player. I suppose in an impossible situation he forced the wing to score out wide resulting in a difficult conversion, subsequently missed, which placed less pressure on Hampshire for his last conversion.

Point taken!

Agreed.

I played FB most of my RL career, all under 18. However occasionally I played on the wing and I hated it. You were always on a hiding to nothing in defence. You were so dependant on other players who often made you look a fool. That doesn’t change even at the top level, especially in a team playing as poorly as we’ve been.

TJ made one mistake, perhaps, probably the same number as most and less than some. However his overall contribution is class and if he played for Saints nobody would ever question TJ’s defence because he’d rarely be in that position whilst at Wakefield it’s a given I’m afraid.

I agree - Croft is progressing well. He didn't look out of place . The Sky pundits were too concerned with how much of a future star Wardle is to notice Croft.

Croft is doing well, he’s exactly where I’d expect him to be for a player who always had promise.

He needs to improve almost every part of his game and I see no reason why he won’t.

He’s a bit small but I’m not convinced that is the be all if you know how to play.

I’m glad for him after a shaky start to the season (the Leeds friendly) but he was out of position on the wing but a confidence dapper all the same.

I don’t get what the constant bagging of TJ when he doesn’t make 1 tackle. It’s not like every other player gets the stick for missing a tackle so I can’t fathom it.

Fact is vs Hudds

Tom - most carries in the Wakefield team.
Tom - most metres by a wakefield player.
Tom - Two trys scored.
Tom - awesome pass to send Jowitt through a gap and followed up almost resulting in a try.

The metres Tom we’re making to get us out of our 20 was valuable and he even took carries on the opposite side of the field then run back to his wing.

It completely beggars belief how one mistake In a difficult position from him and it’s all people want to mention. I’ve not a clue what people watch sometimes.

And I completely agree. The fact is Croft (Who I rate btw) ended up tackling Sezer leaving Tom a choice of the centre and wing and again 2 on 1. Tom was going for the centre but left just enough time to be able to cover Wood. Unfortunately Wood got a decent fend on him.

You just can’t please some people.

Just watched the try again, he made it as difficult as possible for them to score in the circumstances, just wasn't quite up to par with his tackle that's all. His positioning was actually very good

Also he was annoyed with himself you can see that. At the end of the day he was fended off by a big opposing winger. The same thing Tom has done himself on numerous occasions. He’s not immune it happens to ALL wingers ALL the time. If it didn’t nobody would ever score and there wouldn’t be a game worth watching.

I think the stat is that about 80% of tries are scored due to a defensive lapse as opposed to attacking brilliance. That’s how the game works, it’s designed to force errors, if it wasn’t it would be far too predictable, all sports are like that to varying degrees.

Wingers and centres should move up and back together if possible and wingers move inside to force opposition attack’s out wide so if they do get round and score, makes the kick difficult, hence the 2 missed kicks out wide by Shudds and 2 points for Wakey.

Its not just wingers, and no matter how big the opposing player,mis-timing a tackle happens ,and i would say every player no matter how good they are, who plays Rugby or has played Rugby will have mis-timed a tackle or two in their career.
The thing is to learn from them and try and cut out the mistake, mis-timed tackles are also likely to cause injury, usually to the tackler.

Although I agree with you in general on this occasion I don’t think this was a miss tackle as such. I think the opposing team deserves some credit here, it was an excellent move down their right leaving the advantage with the Hudds winger. I reckon if he hadn’t of fended TJ he’d have been very disappointed with himself.

Those tackles take some doing and the attacker often wins. TJ did everything right but in the end he couldn’t bring the lad to ground, as those tackles are 50/50 at best.

Nah, not for me.
Much as I love TJ. He was close enough to touch him so should kept his feet and made a better tackle.